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PREFAC E.

THIS

HIS little lounging mifcellany afpires to the fingular praife of being beneath all criticifm:

For who would break a fly upon the wheel?

It is, in most instances, a mere tranfcript of literary chit-chat, fent to the prefs in the original careless and unftudied expreffion. Horace Walpole was not one of those who regard converfation as an exercife of gladiatorial talents, or who study moral maxims, and arrange bons-mots, to be introduced into future colloquies. Complete eafe and careleffness he regarded as the chief charms of converfation. To have employed therefore a more elevated Style,

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Style, or more formal arrangement, in these trifling pages, would have been fo far from an improvement, that it would have deftroyed their genuine effect. Buffon has remarked, that a man's clothes are a part of the individual animal, and pass into the idea of the chaAs this work walks forth in deshabille, it will afford a more faithful refemblance, than if it were pranked in velvet and gold lace.

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If criticifm can be applied to fuch a production as the prefent, it must proceed upon a juft idea of its feeble nature, and befitating pretenfions. It cannot be estimated as a literary production:

Nos hac novimus effe nihil.

It must be weighed folely as a tranfcript of converfation, which may be both amusing and inftructive, and yet never afpire to the rejearch, felection, and arrangement, necessary for the public ear.

This apology may be requifite for the editor's difregard of any plan, or connexion of parts, in the prefent mifcellany, which contains anecdotes, remarks, letters, &c. &c. just as they were registered, or happened to Start from memory, or from the drawer. It would have been a matter of flight toil to have arranged the whole under diftinct heads,

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